Yeah I think the roller skis are going to work out. I've been on them three times now with mixed results. I did my normal course near where I work that is a packed dirt path, tried some long hills, and yesterday went out to a flat bike path. For me the flat bike path has worked out best. I'm getting the handle on the "speed reducers." I have found that when trying to do a diagonal stride, it didn't take long before my speed would really build up and I couldn't keep up with the skis. So if it was just double poling, I could have done that with the Skikes I already owned. Doing the long hills was a good workout but it took too long for me recovery wise to walk back down the hill (long steep hills) So yesterday I figured out that if I set the speed reducers up a few notches I was able to keep good form, dig in hard and get the classic ski-like workout that I was after. I'm also happy to say that the roller skis are able to go over most obstacles like sticks, cracks etc, which I am happy about. Thanks again for all the comments and solid advice.

No -- just went with the speed controllers. Seems like there was a mixed bag of advice on brakes and that included the folks who sold me the roller skis. I'll try to use common sense and stay out of harms way.